This or That: One more year of C.J. Stroud or Joey Bosa?
Michael Citro via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Let’s kick off This or That Week with a decision on whether to add a stud quarterback to the 2024 roster or a dominant defensive end.
From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about the Buckeyes we expect to excel this season. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all our “This or That” articles here.
Many college football fans and pundits are high on
Ohio State this offseason, but anyone being honest must admit that there are flaws — or at least
potential flaws — with the Buckeyes’ 2024 roster.
The biggest question mark is at the quarterback position, because there has been no starter named yet. That doesn’t necessarily mean Ryan Day doesn’t have a good idea of who would start if the season began today, but he isn’t ready to declare anything at this point.
On the other side of the field, Ohio State’s defense took a major step forward last year under defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, but there was a lot of room for improvement in the sacks department. The Buckeyes finished tied for 60th nationally in sacks in 2023, with 28. That was 10th best in the Big Ten. Jack Sawyer led the way with 6.5 sacks, but five of those came in the final three games, including three in the bowl game loss to Missouri.
While I think Sawyer may take a leap forward this season, the Buckeyes will need to get to the quarterback more often in 2024 to get off the field more quickly and give the ball back to whoever is running the offense.
In the spirit of This or That Week, I propose this question: Would you rather have one more year of C.J. Stroud, or one more year of Joey Bosa to help Ohio State for the 2024 season?
For this exercise, assume that both players are operating at the best level of their OSU careers. To remind everyone what that looks like, let’s look back at those two players’ best years at Ohio State.
Bosa had 13.5 sacks for 96 yards in 2014, more than doubling Sawyer’s team-leading sack total from last season. The elder Bosa also made 55 total tackles (39 solos, 16 assists) — 21 of which were tackles for loss — broke up a pass, tallied four quarterback hurries, forced four fumbles, and returned a fumble for a touchdown. That’s what the stats look like for a dominant college defensive end.
[
Note: There’s no reason Chase Young couldn’t have been used as the defensive end example here, as he had more sacks, pass breakups, quarterback hurries, and forced fumbles in 2019 than Bosa had in 2014. However, Bosa had more tackles and the same number of TFLs, and at least to the eye test, he seemed better at setting the edge in the run game, which is a key component of my selecting him.]
Stroud’s best season was more recent, and it will be fresher in everyone’s minds. In 2021, Stroud completed 317-of-441 passes for an absurd 4,435 yards and 44 touchdowns against only six interceptions. He completed 71.9% of his passes that season.
The good news is that there’s not a wrong answer here. Either player would significantly improve their side of the ball. Stroud would give the 2024 Buckeyes one of the nation’s best quarterbacks. His knack for avoiding crippling mistakes would come in handy with this year’s less experienced wide receivers, and it would be fun to see him run Chip Kelly’s offense.
Bosa would not only give Ohio State the dominant defensive end that’s been missing the past few years, but he would also eat up more double (and triple) teams, allowing Sawyer to get home on the other side. It would be difficult to pass the ball against Ohio State and it’s already difficult to run against the Buckeyes, but Bosa would help in that department as well.
This particular case of This or That is a difficult decision. If pressed, I’d probably go with Stroud due to the importance of the quarterback position. However, it would be interesting to see how prime Bosa’s presence would affect the rest of the defense.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments section below.
Continue reading...
